Professor John Porrill BA, PhD

Qualifications

BA, PhD (Cantab)

Research Interests

My research is aimed at developing a computational understanding of the brain and its role in behaviour.

Mathematical modelling
Very fruitful collaborations with psychologists and neuroscientists (my own training is as a mathematician and theoretical physicist) have allowed me to develop a programme of research based on combining rigorous mathematical modelling with a detailed understanding of the underlying neuroscience.

Identifying the cerebellar algorithm
The central theme of my current research is to identify the cerebellar algorithm. With colleagues I have developed a view of cerebellar function which emphasises the importance of a basic 'decorrelation control' algorithm implemented in the repeating microcircuit based around the Purkinje cell.

This research has been more successful than we could have hoped. For example:

It provides a unified description of sensory and motor functions;

It has revealed a surprising functional role for closed cerebellar loops which have recently been traced in detail and whose function is regarded as a challenge to theorists;

It has provided a computational answer to the longstanding puzzle as to why there are two sites of plasticity in VOR adaptation;

In addition the algorithm has been implemented in hardware by our collaborators in Bristol Robotics Lab and is successfully learning to stabilise a robot mounted camera.

Our enthusiasm for a cross-disciplinary approach makes myself and my close colleague Paul Dean natural partners in current and planned multi-site research programmes linking neuroscience and robotics.

EPSRC, lead by Dean & Porrill, Sheffield with Edinburgh & UWE: Functions of Distributed Plasticity in a Biologically-Inspired Adaptive Control Algorithm: From Electrophysiology to Robotics. (2004for 3yrs) £767K.